Collapsible supporting frame for a hammock

ABSTRACT

A collapsible supporting frame for a hammock has a frame body symmetrical to a longitudinal center plane and consisting of straight struts and joint pieces with plug-in receptacles interconnecting the struts. The frame body comprises two joint pieces having plug-in receptacles for three struts each which define a tetrahedron, of which two are foot struts and the third strut, which extends in the plane of symmetry between the two foot struts, is a support arm for the hammock. Between the two joint pieces on the side facing away from the tetrahedron a longitudinal strut engages in aligned plug-in receptacles of the joint pieces, and the struts that form a tetrahedron, and the foot struts of opposite joint pieces are interconnected by traction means engaging at the strut ends.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a collapsible supporting frame for a hammock with a frame body symmetrical in relation to a longitudinal center plane and made of straight struts and joint pieces interconnecting the struts and forming plug-in receptacles for the struts.

In order to obtain a simple collapsible supporting frame for a hammock, it is known (DE 343 872) that the frame body is composed of two essentially U-shaped frame parts symmetrical to a longitudinal center plane, which are connected to each other at their free ends to receive the hammock and are each composed of straight struts. A disadvantage of these known frame bodies is that the struts and the plug-in connections between the struts of the frame parts which accommodate the struts are subjected to bending, which results in comparatively heavy constructions, which is in contradiction to the requirement for a lightweight supporting frame.

In order for the supporting frame to be adapted to different support lengths for the hammock, it is also known (DE 24 47 696 A) that the frame body is composed of two frame parts, each comprising three struts defining a tetrahedron and being connected by a joint piece, two of which are foot struts and the third strut running in the plane of symmetry between the two foot struts is designed as a support arm for the hammock. The two frame parts are connected by a longitudinal strut engaging on the joint pieces, said frame parts being composed of two mutually longitudinally adjustable partial struts in order to be able to adjust different support lengths for the hammock. In this design, too, the joint pieces must be able to support the weight and torque loads of the struts, so that welded joints must be provided between the struts and the joint pieces.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The invention is thus based on the object of designing a collapsible supporting frame for a hammock in such a way that, despite its light construction, the occurring weight and torque loads can be safely absorbed without impairing the handling of the frame body during assembly or disassembly.

Based on a supporting frame of the type described above, the invention achieves this object in that the frame body comprises two joint pieces with plug-in receptacles for three struts each, which span a tetrahedron and of which two are in the form of foot struts and the third strut, which runs in the plane of symmetry between the two foot struts, is in the form of a support arm for the hammock, that between the two joint pieces on the side remote from the tetrahedron there is provided a longitudinal strut which engages in aligned plug-in receptacles of the joint pieces, and that both the struts each forming a tetrahedron and also the foot struts of the mutually opposite joint pieces are connected to one another by traction means engaging at the strut ends.

Due to the additional mutual traction means tensioning of the struts between each other, which start from a joint piece and span a tetrahedron, as well as the foot struts of the mutually opposing tetrahedron, the struts are essentially stressed as compression rods, so that the joint pieces remain largely free of bending moment loads. This means that it is the main object of the plug-in receptacles to form an abutment to support the pressure of the struts engaging on the joint pieces. Since this eliminates the need for one-sided clamping of the struts in the plug-in receptacles in the sense of a bending beam, advantageous conditions are created for plug-in connections that don't have to be secured, because the struts are held in the plug-in engagement by traction means tensioning and are loaded in the direction of the plug-in engagement in the event of a compressive load caused by the use of a hammock. Due to the struts used in the sense of compression rods, these can be designed in a comparatively light way, which benefits the handling of the frame body during assembly and folding, especially as a high degree of fitting accuracy is not required. The additional traction means tensioning does not cause any difficulties, because the strands of the traction means only need to be hooked into the connections prepared on the struts.

To ensure that the height of the hammock support can be kept low despite the longitudinal strut running below the hammock, it is recommended that the length of the support arms for the hammock is selected at least twice the length of the foot struts. If the longitudinal strut between the two joint pieces is formed by two interconnectable partial struts, the space required for the folded supporting frame is reduced, which is then determined not by the longitudinal strut but by the length of the support arms.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter of the invention is shown in the drawings by way of example, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a collapsible supporting frame for a hammock in a side view according to the invention,

FIG. 2 shows this supporting frame in a frontal view on a larger scale, and

FIG. 3 shows the support frame in an axonometric diagram.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The illustrated supporting frame has a frame body 1 with two joint pieces 2, 3 defining a longitudinal axis of the frame, which are connected to each other by a longitudinal strut 4. For this purpose, the longitudinal strut 4, which can preferably be assembled from two partial struts 5, 6, engages in a plug-in receptacle 7 of each joint piece 2, 3. The joint pieces 2, 3 are also equipped with plug-in receptacles 8, 9 for three struts, namely two foot struts 10 and a support arm 11, which define a tetrahedron. Ball bodies with radial openings for plug-in receptacles 7, 8 and 9 are preferably used as joint pieces 2, 3.

The support arms 11 for the hammock 12 are located in the plane of symmetry between the foot struts 10 forming a longitudinal center plane of the frame body 1. At the ends facing away from the joint piece 2, 3, the foot struts 10 and the support arm 11 are each braced against each other by traction means 13, preferably ropes, which run along the remaining tetrahedron edges, so that the traction means 13 suspended in each case between the ends of the foot struts 10 and of the support arm 11 prevent the tetrahedron respectively defined by the foot struts 10 and the support arm 11 from spreading out. In addition, the foot struts 10 of the opposing joint pieces 2, 3 are mutually connected by traction means 14, as can be seen in particular from FIG. 3. However, the traction means 14 connecting the foot struts 10 of the opposing joint pieces 2, 3 can also run crosswise, because it is only the task of these traction means 14 to prevent the foot struts 10 from spreading in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the frame.

Due to the mutual bracing of the foot struts 10 and the support arm 11, the loads which otherwise lead to a bending load of the support arm 11, which is clamped on one side, are absorbed and transferred by a hammock user by the traction means 13, so that the support arm 11, but also the foot struts 10, are essentially only used as compression rods, which is an advantageous prerequisite for a simple, easy-to-handle construction. To fold up the frame body 1, it is only necessary to first remove the traction means 13, 14 before pulling out the struts from the plug-in receptacles 7, 8 and 9 of the joint pieces 2, 3 and dismantling the longitudinal strut 4 into the partial struts 5, 6. The disassembled frame 1 is assembled in reverse order. 

1. A collapsible supporting frame for a hammock, said supporting frame comprising: a frame body that is symmetrical in relation to a longitudinal center plane and made of straight struts and joint pieces that connect the struts to one another and form plug-in receptacles for the struts, wherein the frame body comprises two joint pieces having plug-in receptacles each for three respective struts that define a tetrahedron, wherein two of the struts are formed as foot struts and a third of said struts extends in a plane of symmetry between the two foot struts and is in the form of a support arm configured to support the hammock, wherein a longitudinal strut extends between the two joint pieces on sides thereof facing away from the respective tetrahedron and engages in aligned plug-in receptacles of the joint pieces, and wherein traction structures connect ends of both the third struts with ends of the foot struts of the associated joint pieces, and the ends of the foot struts opposite each other on the opposing joint pieces engage and are interconnected by traction structures.
 2. A supporting frame according to claim 1, wherein the support arms for the hammock have lengths that are at least twice the length of the foot struts.
 3. A supporting frame according to claim 1, wherein the longitudinal strut is formed from two interconnectable partial struts.
 4. A supporting frame according to claim 2, wherein the longitudinal strut is formed from two interconnectable partial struts.
 5. A collapsible supporting frame for a hammock, said supporting frame comprising: a frame body that is symmetrical relative to a longitudinal vertical center plane; the frame body comprising two joint pieces each having plug-in receptacles each receiving therein a respective end of a set of three struts that with the associated joint piece define a respective tetrahedron; two of the struts of each set of struts being configured to function as foot struts and extending symmetrically relative to each other downwardly from the associated joint piece relative to the longitudinal vertical center plane, the third strut of each set of struts extending upwardly from the associated joint piece in the longitudinal vertical center plane of symmetry between the two foot struts and being a support arm configured to support the hammock at a respective end thereof, wherein the two joint pieces have sides facing away from the respective tetrahedron and towards each other that each has a respective plug-in receptacle aligned with each other, and wherein a longitudinal strut is supported between the joint pieces and has ends that are each engaged in a respective one of the plug-in receptacles of a respective the joint piece, and wherein the struts of each set of struts that form the respective tetrahedron have strut ends that are interconnected with each other by tension members engaging with said strut ends, and the ends of the foot struts on the same side of the longitudinal vertical center plane are connected to each other by tension members engaging at the strut ends thereof.
 6. A supporting frame according to claim 5, wherein the foot struts have a length, and the support arms have a length that is at least twice the length of the foot struts.
 7. A supporting frame according to claim 5, wherein the longitudinal strut comprises two partial struts connected with each other.
 8. A supporting frame according to claim 6, wherein the longitudinal strut comprises two partial struts connected with each other. 